North Carolina Retirement Systems, Raleigh, launched a $500 million emerging managers program with commitments to two manager-of-manager firms.
The two firms, FIS Group of Philadelphia and Leading Edge Investment Advisors of San Francisco, will get $150 million each this year for equity investment from the $78.1 billion system. More money will be committed as the program matures.
FIS Group, with $3.5 billion under management, will oversee non-U.S. equity managers, according to the treasurer's website. Leading Edge, which runs $2 billion in assets, will oversee domestic equity managers.
The firms are also classified as minority-owned. State Treasurer Janet Cowell is seeking minority managers for the system “to the extent possible without compromising superior risk-adjusted returns,” according to a statement.
The new program defines emerging managers as firms with assets of at least $100 million and less than $2 billion. “We recognize that there are many smaller, high-performing managers that have the potential to add value to the pension portfolio,” Ms. Cowell said in a statement.
North Carolina had $34.1 billion in global equities as of Sept. 30.
